Best laid plans
When my boy scout troop went on camping trips, the top priority for us middle and high school boys was to find the nearest field. A wide-open field, preferably with tufts of tall grass to hide in, was the essential element to our favorite night-time camping game: manhunt. I can’t really tell you the rules of this game; they were different every camping trip. If you can imagine thirty teenage boys split into two group chasing each other around a field in the middle of the night for three or four hours, you’ve got a basic picture of manhunt. Each group had a leader, of course, and there was always some kind of strategy to do… something? But that strategy always changed, and so did the goal. The plan was always evolving and morphing. Yet, it somehow always made sense to us boys. I think we really just wanted to run around in the dark and be kids.
In every other part of my life, I hate shifting plans. I only go to the grocery store with a list. When I need new clothes, I know exactly what I need and want. I don’t browse through the aisle looking at all that’s on offer. I go straight to the correct clothing rack, get the items I’ve come for, and go about my day. There comes a point in life (our mid-twenties?) when spontaneity in schedules, plans, or life becomes much less desirable. That doesn’t stop life, however. Any number of things can get in the way our plans. When I was in high school, Plan A for my adult career was to be band director. Being a pastor, I think, was plan F or plan H. And that realization, the possibility of imaging that new life in the church, was not in the five-year plan when it happened.
As best as we try to plan out our days, and even our lives, those plans get foiled, messed up, thrown out the window, or simply given up on. Pivoting at the moment of collapse is even more difficult. I genuinely cannot think of a long-term plan of my own that is still going strong years and years later. At best, two or three years down the road seems reasonable. Anything else is just hoping.
My long list of collapsed plans drew my attention to the Old Testament. Not because of all its stories of incomplete goals and plots, but because of the one plan that was made at the beginning and is still going strong today. That is, God’s plan for sticking by humanity. If you ask me to sum up the Bible, especially the Old Testament, in one sentence, I say: God doesn’t give up on us. From Abraham, Moses, Deborah, Hannah, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets, the Bible tells one long continuous story of God’s wild and passionate love for us.
Each chapter and each book has a different color or nuance, but the plot line is the same. God decided long ago that we were worth it, that we were deserving of love and being rescued from our own destruction. That’s why I think we turn to this intimidatingly large library of ancient stories. When our own plans fall apart, when nothing seems to be going right, when we need encouragement for sticking it out to the end, we can lean on this one story. We hear the words of God’s forgiveness, God’s reassurance and guidance, so that the rocky road of our own life can become a little more level. Whether in a single verse or a whole psalm, it is within scripture that we encounter the one who never gives up on us or our lives.
Matt Lee
Very well said, Mac. Really appreciate you sharing your experience and insights.
Marcia Willi
Pastor Mac,
This really resonated with me as I’ve been struggling! I need to remember that God will deliver me from all worries
Marcia Willi
Pastor Mac.. WOW this really touched my heart! I’ve been struggling and your statement about God NEVER giving up on us is just what I needed to hear
Len Bruce
I think “Manhunt” is an iconic name for adolescent boys playing, exploring, testing, and adventuring the process of becoming an adult. Or, in this case, a “man”.